When we Debutantes took up shop here last August, one of us was delayed in her arrival because of her storytelling obligations at the Burning Man Festival. Immediately, I knew that one of these women was not like the others.
I mean, Burning Man?! My daily adventures consisted of Target runs and maybe, on a good day, a few episodes of The Office with the family after dinner. Meanwhile, Yodassa Williams stormed the stage in front of live audiences and conjured Black Girl Magic.
It’s only fitting then that her debut novel is filled with that same magic. In The Goddess Twins, eighteen-year-old sisters come face-to-face with their destinies as they’re forced to save their mother and themselves from a grandfather who resents his magic’s subjugation to the goddesses in the family.
Told in alternating chapters narrated by the twins, Arden and Aurora, Yodassa blends the mundane concerns of suburban growing up and the extraordinary gift and burden of reclaiming buried magic. It’s a story in which girls will definitely see themselves.
Congratulations, Yodassa! I hope Kirkus is right, and that you’ve got your cast ready for a remix.
